NORTH ROBINSON - Chuck Huggins said Tuesday evening's 9-8 loss to Carey was exactly what his Colonel Crawford softball team needed late in the season.

While a win would've been preferred, a hard-fought game that went down to the wire against the No. 10 team in the state was the type of tune-up game any team would want with the tournament just a week away.

"When you have two tremendous pitchers like Sydney (Studer) and Blayc (Hacker), you think it's going to end up being a pitcher's duel, but you never know how it's going to turn out," Huggins said. "I do know it was a very, very good pre-tournament ball game. It was good for Colonel Crawford and it was good for Carey.

"It was the type of ball game you want to play — you want to play against good competition before you get into the tournament, and that's exactly what we did."

Studer and Hacker's battle wasn't limited to their pitching abilities. They both played huge roles offensively for their teams, notably late in the game.

In the top of the seventh, it was Hacker's two RBI triple that would end up scoring the decisive runs, giving Carey a 9-5 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Studer's two-run homer would make it 9-7 and keep the game within reach.

Ultimately, errors throughout the game ended up being costly for the Lady Eagles, though Huggins is confident that's something they can correct before the sectional round begins.

"We know that's an area we need to keep improving on but I know what type of heart our girls have and what kind of competitors they are," Huggins said. "I know that's one of the main things they're going to want to make sure they improve on going into the tournament.

"We'll take care of that during practice time, pre-game time, there's no doubt in my mind we will make sure we are absolutely at the top of our game when they tournament comes."

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Lydia Strouse had a pair of of doubles, a single, scored a run and drove in an RBI.(Photo: Zachary Holden/Telegraph-Forum)

One of the brightest spots for Colonel Crawford was the offensive productivity of everyone in the lineup. It didn't matter who was at bat or when they stepped into the box, everyone produced at some point throughout the game.

"We take great pride in and we have great confidence in all of our hitters, one through nine," Huggins said. "Whatever your job is to do, we ask them to do it and they do. We have a lot of confidence in our entire lineup because you never know (who will lead-off). It might be your six hitter, it might be your eight hitter. It's important that everybody knows their responsibility."

While he concedes the league title is out of reach at this point in the season, Huggins said he's happy with where his team's at and knows there's still a lot to play for.

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Caitlin Koschnick tied up the game in the third when she stole home after belting a triple.(Photo: Zachary Holden/Telegraph-Forum)

"I really like what my team's doing in that we really are focused on getting better, we understand we haven't peaked yet," Huggins said. "Realistically because of where we're at with the number of games left, we're out of the league race, but there's an awful lot of championships to still win and we're going to keep focusing on what we need to do and see exactly how far we can go."

In the tournament draw last weekend, Colonel Crawford landed in arguably one of the toughest districts in the state with teams like Clear Fork, Galion, Crestview and Bucyrus joining them.

"Our district is loaded," Huggins said. "There could be five, six, seven, eight teams that could legitimately win the district, no doubt in my mind. We know there are going to be other teams playing each other and some are going to get knocked off, some are going to move on.

"Our job is to make sure we're at the top of our game and I'm extremely confident that we'll do that."

The Lady Eagles have a pair of games against Upper Sandusky on Friday and Monday before opening tournament play vying for a sectional championship against the winner of Margaretta and Huron.